A new location opened (third in SoCal?) kinda close to me and each time I pass by on the freeway, there is a line out the door at least 30 people deep. They also literally run tour buses of local elderly to the place.

How long has golden corral even been in the pittsburgh area? I never knew the place existed until they started that advertising campaign a couple of years ago. Is it worse than Ponderosa and or Old Country Buffet?

Troy Loney wrote:How long has golden corral even been in the pittsburgh area? I never knew the place existed until they started that advertising campaign a couple of years ago. Is it worse than Ponderosa and or Old Country Buffet?

There was one in Connellsville that closed in like 1998, so a while. I also got a good giggle out of "old country buffet" changing its' name to "new city buffet", at least the one in greensburg did.

I think people would be surprised at what most restaurants do to their food before it gets to your table. Everyone has short cuts and other procedures to save time and money. At Ponderosa (way back in the day), we used to run the meat (wrapped in plastic) through the dishwasher to thaw it fast.

PensFanInDC wrote:I went to GC once. I felt genuinely sad being in there. It's America's feeding trough. Not a single person there wasn't obese.

Also: the food was terrible.

In a broad sense, no, the food was not terrible. It was MSG infused goodness. However, I personally have 2 different viewpoints on "good food". 1 would be stuff like GC. Nothing but carbs, MSG, tons of sauces, cheese, etc. A stoner's meal if you will. The other would be more refined. A nice cut of NY Strip, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and thyme, grilled to medium rare perfection, served with a slow baked potato and sauteed asparagus.

Oddly, I don't care for buffets unless the food is non-American (for example, Chinese, Japanese, or Indian). Then I'm all up in that place. Taj Mahal's buffets are awesome (and cheap), and I've eaten at the sushi buffet place on McKnight Road many times.

The ponderosa in belle vernon went banana sandwich. corporate decided that since it was a very popular breakfast location, that they would jack up the price like 20% and the bottom fell out almost immediately. 3 weeks after instituting the price change, i was hungover and for some reason, wanted to try the breakfast offering at said place. at 9:00, i was literally the only person in the place. i found out all of this information from the waitress serving me at the time. the managers told corporate that this would happen and they ignored it. the ponderosa closed at the end of may. lulz.

From someone who worked for an HVAC company that had to run calls at a ton of restaurants one would be surprised at what you would see. We ran calls from all types of places. By far the cleanest kitchens I saw was Eat'n'park yeah that's right. The kitchens looked better than Monteray bay and the LeMount. The worst I have ever seen were buffet type places. Especially the chinese ones. The kitchens were a mess. Saw food sitting in the kitchen for hours and then served. never seen one of them wash their hands or anything. Working in the HVAC industry has ruined places like that for me. I will never eat at one of those places again.